My expertise is my knowledge of volleyball. I know how to play it, I know how to watch it, I know how to analyze it, and I know how to teach it. Volleyball is a complex, position-specific team sport that requires a well-developed skill set.
My first exposure to volleyball was in an eighth grade recreational league. My knowledge was limited to “it’s fun!” The next year I tried out as a high school freshman and made the team but some of my friends didn’t. Lesson number one: sports = competition. My volleyball education was on. After the high school season finished I knew I was hooked. An acquaintance of my dad’s told him about “club volleyball” which entailed traveling and playing serious competition around the country. A local club was having tryouts and I attended. This club was for girls between the ages of fifteen and eighteen years old. I was a fifteen year old girl competing with others who had years of club experience. I don’t know what they saw in me but I was selected to the team.
My volleyball education took off. Back then I couldn’t serve. I couldn’t get the ball to the net from the serving line. I was the only girl from the club who couldn’t. The coach and technical director worked with me to serve from ten feet, then twenty, and eventually the full thirty. Serving is just one example of a skill I lacked. These girls were so good and I was so bad. But my teammates, coaches and father always supported me and helped me to get better. That team of fifteen year olds went on to win the regional (Virginia, Maryland, DC) championship for our age bracket.
I continued to make the club team for the next three years, even after trying out with a broken ankle and a cast on my leg. Through hard work, an absence of a social life outside the team, and a desire to be the best, my teammates and coaches elevated our mental and physical mastery of the game. My ability to keep up led me to personally compete in four consecutive Junior Olympic championships, a claim very few athletes can match. It also drew the attention of URI which offered me a scholarship, a reward for my years of hard work.
My volleyball days will someday come to an end, but the lessons I gained on my way to becoming a volleyball “expert” are and will be applied to many other areas of my life.
EDC 102H
9/9/2010
Volleyball
My expertise is my knowledge of volleyball. I know how to play it, I know how to watch it, I know how to analyze it, and I know how to teach it. Volleyball is a complex, position-specific team sport that requires a well-developed skill set.
My first exposure to volleyball was in an eighth grade recreational league. My knowledge was limited to “it’s fun!” The next year I tried out as a high school freshman and made the team but some of my friends didn’t. Lesson number one: sports = competition. My volleyball education was on. After the high school season finished I knew I was hooked. An acquaintance of my dad’s told him about “club volleyball” which entailed traveling and playing serious competition around the country. A local club was having tryouts and I attended. This club was for girls between the ages of fifteen and eighteen years old. I was a fifteen year old girl competing with others who had years of club experience. I don’t know what they saw in me but I was selected to the team.
My volleyball education took off. Back then I couldn’t serve. I couldn’t get the ball to the net from the serving line. I was the only girl from the club who couldn’t. The coach and technical director worked with me to serve from ten feet, then twenty, and eventually the full thirty. Serving is just one example of a skill I lacked. These girls were so good and I was so bad. But my teammates, coaches and father always supported me and helped me to get better. That team of fifteen year olds went on to win the regional (Virginia, Maryland, DC) championship for our age bracket.
I continued to make the club team for the next three years, even after trying out with a broken ankle and a cast on my leg. Through hard work, an absence of a social life outside the team, and a desire to be the best, my teammates and coaches elevated our mental and physical mastery of the game. My ability to keep up led me to personally compete in four consecutive Junior Olympic championships, a claim very few athletes can match. It also drew the attention of URI which offered me a scholarship, a reward for my years of hard work.
My volleyball days will someday come to an end, but the lessons I gained on my way to becoming a volleyball “expert” are and will be applied to many other areas of my life.